In The Way
by mostlypsychotic
Summary: Prelude to the Robin DLC. Oneshot. Tim was commanded to go back to Gotham, and he did. But he had to go back. He couldn't stand knowing how much was wrong in that giant prison.


The hospital hadn't gotten any less chaotic by the time Tim left to get some fresh air. As people rushed in and out of the doors, he preferred to simply wander away, his eyes down and his hands in his pockets. He couldn't remember the last time his heart had ached like this, and it wasn't like he didn't have a reason to feel it. Even when he was thrown into situations as grave as this, he had never had to do it alone before now. He had always been able to look to Batman in the midst of an incident.

"Dammit," he hissed under his breath, crossing the road and heading for the railing that separated the sidewalk from the dark waters of the bay. "Bruce..." There was no way the Dark Knight was playing around by sending him to complete a task like this, he knew that much. If he was giving out such serious jobs...obviously, he was running out of time. Even if he didn't say it out loud, the sentiment was there- he was _dying_. Something in the prison had gotten him, and he wouldn't be alive through the night unless he figured out how to reverse it.

And he couldn't do it alone.

He slid the sleeve of his sweatshirt back, revealing the device strapped to his arm as he hit the button on it. His eyes never left the concrete walls across the bay, even as the elderly butler's voice reached him.

"Master Timothy. I assume this is in regards to the hospital? It's all over the news..."

"I need an immediate drop-off, Alfred. Send it five blocks down, and I'll go get it. I don't want to be noticed," Tim commanded, glancing around as he spoke. Alfred was silent for a moment, though the teen could hear the familiar clacking of a keyboard.

"I believe Master Bruce warned you about returning to the prison, did he not? And even so, do you truly know how dangerous Arkham City is? There _is _the very real chance that you might be killed, Master Timothy."

"I was in there, Alfred. I saw it," the boy argued, his lips tight. He had been in the prison for half an hour at most, but he had been shot at three times, and he had seen thugs in all sorts of costumes, representing factions and fighting for the small bit of territory they had control over. He knew that Arkham City held the most notorious criminals in Gotham, from the Joker all the way to Poison Ivy, and even Bane was lurking around somewhere. He didn't need Alfred telling him about how dangerous the prison was; he _knew_. He just couldn't stand knowing what was happening just across the bay from where he stood. He needed answers.

"Are you still there?" Alfred asked tentatively, jolting him back out of his thoughtful state. "Master Timothy, I was under orders to-"

"_Alfred_," Tim interrupted, his heart racing in the fear that he wouldn't be allowed, that he would be ordered back to the manor and that he would feel the very real sensation that he was still a child in everyone else's eyes. "Please. This is something that I need to do."

"...He ordered you to leave," Alfred repeated, though he seemed less convinced at last. Tim winced a little, his mentor's words from earlier on the rooftop echoing in his mind.

_You're needed in Gotham. _

A wave of guilt staggered him for a moment, and he gripped the railing tighter, glaring at the prison. If things went wrong the way they seemed about to, Gotham would need more than just the two of them. Or so he told himself as he spoke into the device again.

"I know," he insisted. Alfred sighed, the noise accompanied by the keyboard becoming even louder.

"If that is so, then this is your battle to fight, Master Timothy. The Batwing is on its way...please, do come back in one piece." The intercom went silent, and Tim practically collapsed against the railing, his chest heaving in relief and terror. He had to go back, he kept telling himself. He _had _to.

He already knew how to work the security system on the Batwing. That was all he needed to get back into the prison; Alfred could navigate it from the manor, and he would be dropped off back inside like he had the first time. It was a simple enough process, he thought from inside the vehicle as he secured the cape over the rest of his costume and pulled the hood over his head. He knew Batman would be angry – no, furious – to find him back inside the prison, but he would tell him what he kept telling himself. Arkham City needed more than just Batman, especially a Batman whose life was currently in a very delicate balance. If it wasn't kept under control, Gotham wouldn't be prepared in the slightest. They couldn't let that happen. And he needed all the help he could get.

He _needed _his Robin.

The Batwing was losing altitude as it neared the Ace building. Tim braced himself for the bottom of the jet to open up, and was greeted by a powerful gust of wind. Nonetheless, he jumped, his eyes squeezed shut, and was suddenly suspended in cold, almost still air. Letting his cape take over, he glided to the roof, his entire body relaxing as he hit the pavement lightly.

Right, then. He had made it back, safe and sound. Whether or not he stayed that way depended on him, he reminded himself curtly as he strode to the edge of the roof and surveyed the broken landscape around him. This was his city, too, and there was a sense of familiarity in the streets below him, even as criminals roamed them and fought on their sidewalks and in their alleyways.

Gotham was his city, too. A city worth fighting to save.

"Alfred," he murmured into his intercom. "Give me any information you have on Black Mask."

The only man to ever escape Arkham City, even if he was returned just hours later. The last report had informed him and Barbara that he and his own personal army had retreated under the city, and that as far as anyone could tell, he hadn't allied himself with anybody else.

It was the perfect place to begin.


End file.
